Beams from hundreds of laser cannons converged on a single point.
The enormous energy being poured in was converted into heat, turning the atmosphere to plasma. Violent light and ultrahigh temperatures spread outward through the area.
“So bright~”
“The sensors are whited out~”
The electromagnetic radiation and visible light being emitted were simply too intense, driving the surrounding sensors past their detection limits. The screens turned pure white, and most observed values pegged at MAX.
“Did we overdo it...?”
“We need to reevaluate the onboard sensors.”
The command room display switched over to remote observation data. At the center of the image, a pure white brilliance had appeared, like a miniature sun.
At that level of heat, even something the size of <Fenrir> should not have been able to endure it under normal logic.
But threat organisms were threat organisms precisely because they possessed that sort of unreasonable fantasy power.
“Moving object detected.”
“<Froze> confirmed!”
<Froze> burst out from the zone of superheated air.
Ordinarily, the frontline machines would have adjusted their aim to track his movement, but it seemed they were no longer capable of that level of response with their sensors whited out.
“...Damage confirmed.”
Even so, that ultrahigh-energy attack had apparently been effective against <Froze>.
Analysis of the long-range imagery confirmed that the surface of his body had been severely burned.
“Oh! So laser attacks are effective against <Froze> after all!”
The moment she saw the image, Asahi let out a cheer.
“His magic barrier may have reduced the damage! At that heat level, it wouldn’t have been strange for his whole body to evaporate!”
“So it still isn’t going to be that simple...”
After escaping the laser strike, <Froze> immediately began retreating at full speed. He darted frantically away from the automated machines, which were adjusting their aim in accordance with instructions from the tactical data link.
But the speed of that movement was absurd.
His top speed exceeded the speed of sound, and the dirt and debris kicked up by each step obscured visibility, making laser attacks increasingly ineffective.
“No impairment is visible in <Froze>’s movement.”
“His fur has been damaged, but it does not appear the musculature itself has been affected.”
“Doesn’t he feel pain~?”
An ordinary living creature should have shown ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) disrupted movement from the pain of burns to the skin. But whether it was battle-induced exhilaration or a physiology that allowed him to ignore pain, <Froze> kept moving with overwhelming force, making concentrated laser fire impossible.
“Big Sister, this is incredible. He’s moving so fast the turrets can’t rotate quickly enough! If they don’t revise their tactics immediately, they’re going to be completely toyed with by that speed.”
Asahi, not being involved in the actual operation this time, was free to make comments like that at her leisure. But the tactical AI on the ground would not have had the luxury.
It had to keep attacking a target moving at supersonic speed while the sensors’ sensitivity had already been degraded by the aftereffects of that concentrated laser strike.
“We are unable to carry out effective attacks.”
“<Iris> has shifted its basic policy to intelligence gathering.”
And with that notice of a strategic change from <Iris>, the pressure of attacks on <Froze> dropped. The focus shifted away from active destruction and toward obstructing his movement.
<Froze> seemed to sense that change immediately.
His high-speed motion changed from evasive movement to attack.
He planted a foot, twisted his body, and closed on the <Jotun>s all at once.
A railgun whose barrel happened to be aligned with the approaching threat organism fired straight at him.
“That hit! ...But of course, he still has the barrier.”
They had barely managed to hold off the first attack.
The second was impossible.
Landing while plowing through the deployed multi-legged tanks, <Froze> immediately charged straight at Jotun B.
He might have noticed that attacks only came from the direction the turrets were facing. There were no attack-capable turrets in the direction he leapt.
“Damage confirmed. Main Gun Five is a total loss.”
<Froze> had probably bitten it off.
The contact lasted only an instant, but even that was enough for the rear main turret to be destroyed and sent flying through the air.
Lasers and shells poured in from all sides, but despite his massive body, <Froze> continued moving while deftly dodging them.
Then, twice more, he leapt at Jotun B and destroyed its main turrets.
The local automated force was being completely outmaneuvered.
“Jotun B is going to lose all its main guns~”
“This is probably impossible~”
Utsugi and Erika seemed to have run the calculations on <Froze>’s movement speed and the turrets’ rotation speed.
Unless they could accurately predict where he would be several seconds ahead, they apparently could not land an effective hit with their current equipment.
But <Froze> was moving at supersonic speed. They were already struggling to predict not just seconds ahead, but even a tenth of a second into the future.
And then—
On the screen, Jotun B suddenly erupted in flames from within.
“Critical damage confirmed on Jotun B!”
“Reactors Two and Three have shut down. Forced circulation stop of the working fluid is underway.”
“Big Sister, it looks like <Froze> breathed fire!”
Only a few minutes after the battle began, a <Jotun> had been taken out.
Image analysis confirmed that a mass of flame fired from <Froze>’s mouth had struck Jotun B directly. The flame projectile itself was also supersonic, making it an attack a lumbering <Jotun> could never have dodged.
“Jotun B entering emergency shutdown. Beginning isolation of the core room.”
“<Iris> has selected the launch of anti-barrier missiles!”
At this rate, the <Jotun> force would be annihilated almost immediately.
That was <Iris>’s judgment, and so hypersonic missiles were launched from the missile platforms in the rear.
Instantly accelerated to supersonic speed by electromagnetic catapults, the missiles began their flight at staggering velocity.
“Anti-barrier missiles accelerating. Impact in twenty-eight seconds.”
The hypersonic missiles were capable of course correction, but could not use onboard sensors.
Even if sensors were installed, aerodynamic heating at that speed would raise the temperature at the sensor apertures to extreme levels.
To protect the missile body from heat, the nose section was equipped with heat-resistant armor that drew away temperature through latent heat of vaporization.
That meant missile guidance had to be handled externally.
The turrets of the four-legged tanks and multi-legged tanks all synchronized and poured shellfire into <Froze>.
Hundreds of metal rounds per second were fired at the target in successive waves.
But it still was not enough to nullify <Froze>’s magic barrier.
He was moving too fast for them to score direct hits.
Even so, they could still harass his movement path and interfere with his attack motions.
One of the masses of flame spat out by <Froze> veered slightly off course and struck the ground close beside Jotun D.
The fireball exploded into an inferno, and the surrounding four-legged tanks melted and ran like wax.
The heat was so extreme that the ground liquefied into magma, burning bright red.
“Jotun D is experiencing operational trouble in its forward drive wheels.”
Jotun D’s status display turned bright red.
The section closest to the fireball’s impact point had been damaged by radiant heat alone.
If one of those fireballs scored a direct hit, it truly would not have been strange for a ship to be disabled in a single blow. The extreme heat would spread through the working fluid circulating throughout the vessel and affect the entire hull.
“Multiple small laser concentration points have been placed along the predicted movement path.”
Even if it was not enough to deal a fatal blow, they had to land something.
<Iris> abandoned attack power and, simply to achieve effective hits, partially dispersed the concentration of laser fire and set laser strikes in order of highest probability along the predicted movement routes.
Purely by chance, <Froze> jumped into one of them.
The concentrated heat rays placed an extreme load on his barrier.
<Froze> hastily leapt back out of that zone.
“Anti-magic-barrier missile, impact.”
And then the missile’s warhead, glowing red-hot, slammed into <Froze> in midair.
